Chapter 16: Devouring

“Save me, save me!!”

A bandit crawled on the ground, his legs already cut off, struggling to move forward. Dark shadows surrounded his body, but for this bandit, only the man before him was his savior. He reached out his hand, raising his head to plead towards Kyle, but Kyle just closed his eyes heartlessly, no longer looking at his former subordinate.

The sharp blade pierced through the bandit’s chest, forcing him to let out a final scream. Then, his body began to rapidly wither, weaken, and turn into a skeletal corpse. The flame of his soul burst out, flowing along the sword edge upwards, then disappeared. The Wraith Warrior pulled out its sword, which was now shiny and bright, sharp enough to cut gold and jade, despite being rusty before. Looking closely, one could even notice that the armor worn by these Wraith Warriors had undergone subtle changes. The worn and broken parts had been repaired at some point, and the entire black iron armor emitted a dim glow. The decorative patterns on it were slightly distorted, showing vague human face shapes.

“Is this all?” Julian’s voice made Kyle open his eyes again. He stared hard at the young man before him, then gritted his teeth and slowly lowered his head.

“Yes, my lord.”

His voice was mixed with immense fear and a hint of shame. After all, he was also a bandit, and now, under the threat of outsiders, he had to abandon his comrades who had shared life and death with him. This made Kyle feel a bit ashamed… but it was only fleeting. Subordinates could be found again, and in fact, it was better if they all died. If they all died, no one else would know about his betrayal. As long as he could stay alive, he would have enough time and energy to rebuild his organization. At that time, he could just make up a lie. Yes, he would say that the bandit group was destroyed by a powerful enemy, and he barely escaped… Yes, that would be best, that would be perfect!
Progress is good.

Julian withdrew his gaze and carefully observed the Wraith Warriors beside him, raising his eyebrows. This time, the main goal of bringing these Wraith Warriors out was this – to restore the Wraith Warriors’ strength and stabilize their power and form.

Although the Wraith Warriors themselves had considerable magic reserves, they were after all only souls. Without a physical body to preserve and concentrate magic power, their magic could only be maintained at the minimum level that a soul form could coalesce. For example, if a soul could only contain fifty mana of magic power, although it could obtain more magic power through various means, due to the lack of conditions for concentration, the magic power it absorbed would eventually dissipate gradually, leaving only up to fifty mana – the limit energy that the soul itself could bear. This process was irreversible and could not be prohibited. However, once it had a physical body, if this Wraith Warrior absorbed another hundred mana of magic power, that hundred mana would be stored in its physical body and would not disappear until the next consumption.

What Julian was trying to do now was to give these Wraith Warriors powerful strength in the shortest time possible, and let them gradually condense and store this powerful strength in their current form. As long as they had enough magic power support, these Wraith Warriors could gradually accumulate and then evolve into new forms based on their current armor entity. This way, the Wraith Warriors’ existence time would be longer, and the power they could use would become stronger.

There were several ways to enhance the Wraith Warriors’ power. After all, now the Wraith Warriors, due to Julian’s power, already had “armor bodies” that could bind and condense magic power. The next step was to let them absorb magic power. Among these methods, the most convenient and quick way was to let them devour other life forms’ souls.

Devouring souls could be said to be the innate instinct of every spirit being. Humans maintain their lives by consuming the bodies of other life forms, while spirit beings maintain their existence through the souls of other life forms. Of course, these souls also varied in strength, which was why Julian brought these Wraith Warriors, crossing the Twilight Mountain Range to the Golden Trade Route, precisely for these large “soul foods”.

The reason for choosing the bandits on the Golden Trade Route as food for the Wraith Warriors was not because Julian was kind-hearted and wanted to play the hero. It was because in the good camp, the weak occupied the majority of the base number, and the strength of the soul was also inextricably linked to its own strength. Doing good deeds doesn’t require you to have any powerful strength or ability, just a kind heart is enough. But doing evil is different. If you want to do evil, you need to have strength that can surpass others to achieve it. Because of this, the soul power of evildoers was generally full of strength. And the current scene proved Julian’s guess.

With Kyle’s help, more than thirty bandits had died at the hands of these Wraith Warriors, and after absorbing the souls of these evil people, the Wraith Warriors had evolved to the top level of intermediate warriors – if it were Twilight Town, even if he killed everyone there, he probably couldn’t make these Wraith Warriors evolve so quickly.
However, Ophariel obviously had some different views.

“My lord, isn’t what you’re doing a bit… inappropriate?”

“Hmm?” Hearing this, Julian turned his head, looking at Ophariel with slight surprise.

“Is there a problem?”

“Didn’t you just tell them to lay down their weapons and surrender? But now you’re killing them so quickly, isn’t that a bit…”

Ophariel’s expression was somewhat confused. This was understandable, after all, the girl had never participated in any battles, and her experience with death was also limited. Just now when these bandits were killed, their eyes full of resentment and betrayal made Ophariel feel a bit uneasy. She seemed to understand their thoughts – if you were going to kill us all anyway, why deceive us?

“I did indeed tell them to lay down their weapons and surrender,” Julian’s expression was quite innocent.

“But I never said I would spare their lives if they surrendered, did I?”

“You heard it too, I only told Kyle to shout for them to lay down their weapons and surrender immediately. Did I say they wouldn’t die if they surrendered?”

“…But considering general common sense…”

“That’s just a consideration of general common sense, a subjective judgment of individuals,” Julian smiled, interrupting Ophariel’s argument.

“Anything, before it’s explicitly stated, won’t have a definitive conclusion, and on the battlefield, the consequence of misjudgment is only death. They misjudged, that’s all.”

“…Then your purpose for doing this…”

“Isn’t it more convenient and time-saving to kill unarmed surrenderers compared to resisters?”

“Hah…” Hearing this, Ophariel pressed her hand against her forehead and let out a long sigh.

“I think I finally understand your way of thinking, my lord…”

Good that you understand.

Seeing the helpless expression on Ophariel’s face, Julian didn’t say anything more. Instead, he turned around and waved to Kyle who was standing nearby.

“Come here.”

“I’m here, my lord!” Seeing Julian’s summons, Kyle hurriedly ran to his side, revealing a smile. Along the way, he had also been observing these two people. That young lady was not much different from Kyle’s judgment, indeed just a noble lady who had run out from somewhere, so Kyle didn’t pay much attention to her. But this young man was different. Although from the surface, he looked thin and weak, not like someone who would wield weapons, Kyle could see from Julian’s expression that this was definitely not an ordinary person. Especially when his subordinates were being killed, Kyle had paid special attention to Julian’s expression. Whether they were resisting, begging for mercy, or cursing angrily, Julian’s expression was always so calm and gentle, as if whether they lived or died had nothing to do with him. You know, even Kyle himself couldn’t be so calm when killing people. At least he would be excited, thrilled by having the power of life and death over others. However, on Julian’s face, such emotional fluctuations couldn’t be seen.
Could he be a big shot, carrying out some secret mission this time?

The more Kyle thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Julian’s attire looked like that of a noble no matter how you looked at it, and the girl beside him was also quite beautiful, definitely not of commoner birth. Moreover, although these black-armored warriors weren’t dressed very smartly, their terrifying and bizarre combat techniques were something Kyle had never heard of or seen before. Add to that their strict discipline – Kyle hadn’t failed to notice that these black-armored warriors had never made any sound since their appearance, they just silently executed Julian’s orders. This kind of discipline couldn’t be seen even in the royal guards of the Kingdom of Hiro.

Yes, this young master must be a representative of some great noble. If he could gain his favor, then in the future…

Thinking of this, Kyle’s attitude towards Julian became increasingly respectful.

“You must be very familiar with those guys on the Golden Trade Route.”

“Well… I’m okay,” Because of the previous lesson, Kyle was very cautious in his answer this time.

“Then, you should know who’s the strongest among these bandits, right?”

“I know that,” Hearing this question, Kyle’s eyes immediately lit up.

“To be honest with you, my lord, the strongest in the entire Golden Trade Route would be ‘Moon Wolf’ Darlos and his bunch of bastard subordinates. I heard that Darlos seems to have reached the level of high-rank swordsman, just one step away from soul swordsman!”

“High-rank swordsman?” Hearing this, Julian raised an eyebrow.

It’s him.

“Then, I suppose you also know where that guy’s base is.”

“Well…” Kyle’s face changed slightly.

“To be honest, Darlos’s base is on the west side of the Golden Trade Route. They’ve occupied the best spot, my lord. To get from here to Moon Wolf’s territory, we’d have to pass through several other guys’ territories, and those guys are not easy to deal with…”

“You don’t need to worry about that. You just need to lead the way,” Julian shrugged, then reached out his hand and pressed on the hilt of his sword.

“By the way, before we meet that guy, we’ll encounter many bandits, right?”

“That’s correct, my lord…”

“Very good.”

Looks like the Wraith Warriors’ food is secured.